Well I've cooked up yet another Home Depot / We-Todd-Did ITR mod...
This time its the ultimate cold air intake. I was inspired by the Ram Air on an ITR? thread a while back, and decided to do something about it.
First I got a small black NACA duct w/ a 3 inch outlet from this place:
http://www.quickcar.net/cooling/cp_nacaduct.html
Then I trucked myself over to Home Depot Racing supply and picked up some flexible 3" aluminum dryer ducting, two 3" hose clamps, and a role of black duct tape. Here's a pic to give you a general idear:

Notice that I took the OEM airbox to resonator pipe, liberated it from the airbox, and cut it after the first bend. This enables a perfect seal with the bottom of the stock airbox.
Then we covered the crappy dryer ducting w/ the tape to give it some strength:

We also poked a small hole in this hose to prevent water from pooling in the bottom - the OEM pipe already had a small hole...

Now the hard part - we "modified" the stock front grill to allow us to mount the NACA duct into it. We had to cut the NACA duct as well to allow it to fit. This is somewhat difficult - we used a Dremel Tool. If you are going to do this - GO SLOW - you don't want to destroy the bumper. We removed the bumper to fit the duct, and allow us to make clean cuts. We put a small screw in the front of the duct to mount it to the stock grill. Here's the modified bumper (front lip removed):

Here are some pics of the completed intake:





It seems to be holding up well to the rigors of highway use, but I just finished it yesterday. I don't have any dyno results either, but hopefully I'll be able to make a few pulls @ the Expo. Only downside to this "mod" is that the vtec changeover seems to be muffled. I think that the intake pipe is masking the sound from the increased overlap and duration of the Vtec cam. I'm not too concerned w/ this though, cause colder air always equals more power...

Oh, here's the original "ram air" thread that inspired me:
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=398042


[Modified by Philly_NBP_R, 1:28 PM 3/10/2003]

 

Aww, that's my thread Nice looking setup

 

Thanks

 

good stuff

 

Sweet!

I wish I were that creative!

Alan

 

My only problem is, I didn't think that dryer tubing provided a smooth flow of air.

The idea is good, but having such a rough inside surface would be counter-productive, wouldn't it?

 

Nice DIY. Any improvement in throttle response?

 

Nice

 

Re: the intake pipe material...
Well, it's not really too bad, but I eventually want to replace the dryer tubing with some smooth, harder piping (aluminum??). I just need to find something that will fit correctly. I think it's okay for now - a certain racecar I know uses the same piping


Throttle response seems the same. My friend said the car sounds a bit louder, but that's not a big deal...


[Modified by Philly_NBP_R, 1:48 PM 3/10/2003]

 

interesting design.

two things...
-Those ducts are made for side flow, not direct (not a biggy)
-The tubing does taper a bit, disturbing flow

Overall considering it's a true fresh air duct the increased flow probably counters any negatives from the design.

Pretty neat for a DIY

 

*BLING* WTDR method strikes again.

Non-laminar flow 'under pressure' will be better then laminar flow 'under vacuum'.

 

Is there a filter somewhere in that setup? or is it filter-less? I would be scared to run a ram air like that without a filter of some kind.

 

Hmmmm, that hose is kinda long IMO... Hurts throttle response and top end power....I think

 

sweet. It looks like it would be effective. hopefully you will get some gain from it. I dont know if I would have went as far as cutting away at the bumbper but.... still, nice job.

 

Looks nice, maybe you should make the hose shorter and put the duct in place of the turn signal?

 

I'd spray the inside of the duct flat black...the silver just seems a little out of place to me.

 

yep - that's on the list of things to do...

As far as throttle response goes, it doesn't seem to be any different than stock, and I think the cold air should offset any losses on the top end. I have the OEM intake pipe plugged into the bottom of the stock airbox, w/ a Comptech foam filter in there - so NO I am not running without a filter. The beauty of the intake is that from the airbox to the throttle plate, it's all stock. I had reservations about cutting the grille, but I don't plan on selling the car for a looooong time, so I'm the only one who has to deal with it...

 

Thought about doing this, but two problems emerge:
1. The turn signal opening is not big enough to allow significant air flow through to the airbox.
2. The car is daily driven, so I need my turn signals!

Remember that this is a work in progress, so any and all suggestions are welcome.

 

you wont notice any gains on a dyno ...since your prolly sitting in a hot garage ..with no fresh air ...but in motion ...you might notice a difference

 

Ahhh, that is a great idea

 

Exactly. To dyno this would be a waste of time. Throttle response should be there at 6000+ rpm, where it really counts in my book. People cry about low and mid end throttle response with a AEM CAI but at 6000+ rpm it's killer as this setup should be also.

 

as far as low end throttle response goes, it's definately better than the stock setup w/ resonator... and you get an interesting growl from the front of the car

 

nice work

air flows on the wall of the tube,
dryer hose may creates some turbrlence.
i knew this because i have same hose.
look into two aspects:
better hose/tube
air velocity

 

she seems to pull a little stronger on the highway, but everybody knows how accurate the butt dyno is
I guess it won't really make much of a difference until the outside temps climb above 50...

 

Look scarey cutting up your bumper for few hps.